Bonded and Bred Ch. 17-18

**

They finished the rest of their journey in almost total silence.

Iris was not sure what to say in response to James's revelations, and once he had voiced them, it seemed that he did not want to talk any more either.

Thankfully the remainder of their journey only lasted for less than half an hour, and as he pulled onto a narrow lane, sandwiched between what appeared to be a rather dense forest, Iris caught sight of a shadowy building peeping over the tops of trees.

As he pulled to a halt in front of the house, she looked up at it.

It was a block of a building; almost as though a child had come along, with a bunch of sandy brown Lego bricks.

It must have been four floors high, judging by the rows of windows, all staring out in uniform conformity.

There were lights on downstairs, and Iris looked across at James questioningly.

"It's a big house, and a large estate," he shrugged almost apologetically. "It needs some staff to tend to it - especially as I am away so much."

"Did you design this house?" she asked as she continued to stare at this aggressively masculine structure.

James shrugged awkwardly.

"The house that was here before had been badly damaged by fire. I had what was left of it pulled down and removed, and then I spent a month or more just camping out here..."

"And this is what you felt was most fitting this environment?" Iris guessed with a little smile.

He looked at her almost anxiously. "Yes... do you approve?"

She looked across at it again. "It's very... austere looking... but yes I like it very much. It's almost as though it is sitting there and waiting for something."

James laughed. "I thought that myself when I first saw the completed building, but I could never put my finger on what it was lacking - until this moment!"

"But now you know?" she asked breathlessly.

He grinned down at her, and his brown eyes brightened almost with glee.

"It's waiting to become a home!"

He rested his hand lightly on the back of her waist, and gently guided her forward, towards the block of a building.

The large door was already standing open and a middle aged woman was waiting to greet them, and standing behind her was a man who could have been a little older, but not by much, along with two other young women.

The four people had coats on, and were holding handbags and small holdalls.

"Mr Atherton," she nodded calmly. "Your room, and a guest room have been made up ready as you requested, there is food in the kitchen - a stew that is on a low heat, and will be ready to eat when you are. There are several bowls of cooked meats in the refrigerator as well."

"Excellent, Alice, thank you all so much for your efforts, and before you go, I would just like to introduce Miss Beaumont to you."

The four people all murmured and smiled at her welcomingly, and with no small amount of curiosity.

"We will be back before you leave on Sunday, Mr Atherton." Alice informed him almost warningly.

"Yes, Alice that would be most useful, but until then, I hope that you and Bill have an enjoyable weekend."

"Well it will at least be relaxing for a change... since the moon is in its first quarter."

Iris had suspected that James's staff were shifters, but Alice's referral to the moon pretty much confirmed it.

James stood with his arm resting lightly around her waist as his staff all left the house, and the two of them watched as the four people climbed into Bill's muddied up jeep and then with a last wave they drove off into the early evening.

They were alone in the middle of nowhere, and as the realisation dawned on Iris, she gave a little shiver.

"Come inside before you get cold," James's arm tightened briefly around her waist, and he guided her over the threshold.

Iris walked into the brightly lit hallway and then stopped as she stared in awe.

The hallway was a large open affair, with a magnificent stairway facing the doors, and that swept up to a small square landing, to split and continue off and up in opposite directions.

Her eyes followed the stairway up, but she left the flow of the stairs as she caught sight of the mural painted across the ceiling, a painting of open grasslands, and wolves and birds of prey.

"It's beautiful!" she gasped as her eyes picked out a cub under the shadow of a tree, and an owl peering through leaves.

She looked at James, and her green eyes were wide with wonder.

"Who on earth could have painted such a detailed scene?"

She watched as the colour slowly fanned its way across his cheekbones, and although he looked embarrassed, he smiled with delight as well.

"You did that!" she exclaimed as the realisation hit.

He nodded almost smugly. "Yes, this is my handiwork... although I have to admit that it looks much better from a distance than it does close up."

Iris laughed even as she shook her head. "My eyesight is very good, very, very good; and I can see - even from this angle that that is a beautiful piece of artwork."

"Well thank you for the compliment, it was a labour of love for me to do, so any pleasure that it might give to anyone else - especially you... well that is just icing on the cake!"

He put his hand on the back of her waist again. "Come on, I will show you to your room, and then we can see about something to eat."

"Oh, okay." she hadn't really thought about rooms, had sort of assumed that they would be sharing.

"I did not want to presume anything," he said as though he had read her thoughts. "Just because we were intimate before does not mean that I have any automatic rights."

He was so different from those other shifters, who had come to try to woo her and Laurie.

He kept a tight rein on his inner wolf, and an even tighter rein on his humanity; it was no wonder that Iris had fallen in love with him; he was everything she could ever have wanted in a shifter and a man!